Farming Futures: automation and robotics, industrial research

The aim of this competition is to fund collaborative development projects with ambitious solutions for robotics and automation in agriculture and horticulture to:

• support specific recommendations for automation innovation funding from recent Defra reviews and the Government Food Strategy
• address key issues affecting the sector, where automation and robotics can mitigate labour challenges and increase productivity.

Your proposal must be able to demonstrate how the project will benefit farmers or growers in England.

Your project must have total costs between £500,000 and £1million and start by 1 September 2023. 

This competition is split into two strands. This strand; 

Strand 1 - Farming Futures: automation and robotics industrial research; accelerating collaborative R&D with the UK’s world-leading research base, agri-tech businesses, SMEs and the UK agricultural sector to develop innovations in agriculture and horticulture

The grant is provided by the Farming Futures R&D Fund and run by Defra. Full details on gov.uk.